Strike Gunner S.T.G
A 1991 vertically scrolling shooter from Athena and Tecmo.
Strike Gunner S.T.G is a vertical-scrolling shooter from 1991. Athena developed it, and Tecmo handled publishing. It launched in Japan and North America that April. A Super Nintendo port arrived in 1992, adding Mode 7 effects. Activision released the European version as Super Strike Gunner. Hamster Corporation later brought it to modern consoles in 2023.
Quick Facts
- Developer
- Athena
- Publisher
- Arcade
- Tecmo
- Super NES
- Athena (JP)
- NTVIC (NA)
- Activision (EU)
- Designer
- Naoki Morishima
- Kouichi Ishibashi
- Tsutomu Tabata
- Composer
- Shotaro Sasaki; Kouichi Ishibashi
- Platforms
- Arcade, Super NES
- Genre
- Scrolling shooter
- Modes
- Single-player, multiplayer
Facts from the source article.
Plot
Earth faces an alien invasion in 2008, with a human government collaborating with the attackers. Pilots Mark MacKenzie and Jane Sinclair fly the Strike Gunner, a top-secret aerospace fighter, to fight back. The first five missions target human military hardware like tanks and jets on Earth. The final three stages move beyond Earth's orbit, where the pilots battle the aliens directly and finally attack their huge mothership past the Moon.
Gameplay
Strike Gunner S.T.G is a typical vertically scrolling shooter. Stages feature large waves of normal enemies, such as helicopters and gun turrets, that require one or two hits to destroy. Most stages contain at least one mini-boss and a screen-filling final boss; stage eight is abbreviated, consisting mostly of an obstacle-avoidance course protecting a defenseless mothership core. The game offers four difficulty levels. The Strike Gunner has a basic blaster with inexhaustible ammunition that can be upgraded several times: upgrades first increase rate of fire, then switch from a red version to a more powerful blue version with its own upgrades. Before each stage, the player must choose a second special weapon from ten options in the arcade version or fifteen in the SNES version. Each special weapon can be chosen only once per playthrough, adding strategy; if none is selected, the menu defaults to the next unused option. Special weapons have a meter, with energy consumption proportional to power: the Autoaim Vulcan can be used almost continuously, while the Megabeam Cannon consumes the entire bar in one firing. Power-ups, speed boosts, and special-weapon energy refills are provided by stealth bombers, space shuttles, or capsules. Losing a life resets basic-weapon upgrades but refills the special-weapons meter, which can be used tactically. The game supports two-player simultaneous co-op with identical missions; two players can choose complementary special weapons, and if one quits, their Strike Gunner can dock with the active player's, reverting to single-player mode.
Reception
In May 1991, Game Machine listed Strike Gunner S.T.G as the 11th most successful table arcade unit in Japan. The SNES port received middling reviews, with critics noting repetitive gameplay and lack of originality; some special weapons, such as the Antiair Mine and Adhesive Bomb, were considered useless. Nintendo Power's September 1992 issue called it a mindless shooter similar to many others, though reviewers admitted to enjoying it and conceded it was well done for what it was. The rock-techno soundtrack was generally well-received.
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